I thought this may be the best interview Rachel Franklin has done about TS4 so far. It helped that the interviewer had experience with not only TS4 but previous games as well, and was able to speak to his own personal experiences. So often, people who conduct these types of interviews either know nothing about the game, or only know about things that raise the most "noise" in the community. Mr. Jenkins, however, asked some very excellent questions-he also seemed to know just how much Rachel would or would not be able to answer.

Rachel, for her part, seemed very candid-as she has been in other recent print interviews. She was honest about where the game fell down when it was launched, but she was also genuinely optimistic that things are getting better. I completely understand the position she gave when asked the inevitable "toddler" question, which in my reading boiled down to "We know there are many fans who want this content. We are hearing that message, and it is not off the table for the future. But we are going to incorporate all of our sources of information (be they forums or other online sources, in-person feedback by bringing players in, or data collected from the game itself) when making decisions about what content to produce and in what order to ensure that content enriches as many player experiences as possible". Or, to put it more bluntly, "We're not just greasing the squeaky wheels."

I think the same as @Purplestarz2006 mostly. I thought it was a very good interview. It was nice to see the laughing and mood as well that we oftentimes lose in the text. I think that if we had gotten toddlers at launch, we would have been disappointed and it allowed the team to make the game better in other ways and more stable for the launch. The interview seemed to solidify that opinion in me. She even stated that she wasn't saying toddlers wouldn't be in the future, but many people have reacted saying she hates toddlers and despises them.

I honestly don't think anything she's allowed to say will please people... just like Rachel said. Nobody trusts the developers anymore (and rightly so in some cases), so that makes anything she says fly out the window which is probably why they are not doing as much marketing and teasing to us and just putting out content instead.

I haven't always thought Rachel shared information in the best way, whether or not what she shared was ultimately her choice. But I agree that she did a very good job in this interview.

As previously mentioned - they're trying to please everybody as best they can. There are millions of sims players all over the world. Many of which I'm sure are builders and not family-based players. They get tons of information from so many different sources that we're not aware of.

I'm happy with the direction they're taking, and appreciate that they can acknowledge that there are obvious areas they can improve, especially with communicating features of the game or their packs.

It's only going to get better and I can't wait!

She did mention though that it hasn't yet been a year? "And so I don’t have a concrete answer for that because we’re not even a year into it."

She also did mention that they're releasing something every month... but no word on a September release yet and it's already they 14th.

Maybe she gave the interview last month and they only published it now =)

And yes, it's a shame she's been stating that we get something new every month and then we didn't get anything in September. Oh well ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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I just posted this in another thread. XD September isn't over yet! They could surprise us still.
Luxury Party Stuff was announced on May 13th, and came out in less than a week on May 19th.
Perfect Patio was announced on June 10th, and came out in less than a week on June 16th.

And who knows when a patch will hit us! Lol.

@Mitchi32 It's likely that the interview took more time than expected to get published.

I haven't always thought Rachel shared information in the best way, whether or not what she shared was ultimately her choice. But I agree that she did a very good job in this interview.

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One thing I have noticed about Rachel is that she tends to do better in print interviews than she does in big presentations and the more "PR" blog posts. She seems to really love the game and the team she's leading and she wants to discuss it beyond catchphrases and platitudes. She also strikes me as someone who really needs to think things through and elaborate on her points. When she is given the opportunity to do that she does very well. When she is trying to "entertain" a crowd of hundreds at a convention with a punchy, PR filled presentation, not so much.